Ion Formation: AI and Ga.”I am practicing ion Formation and need help with two elements and some questions, please. Thank you so much for your time! For the elements of AI and Ga, what would their number of valence electrons be, number of electrons to gain, number of electrons to lose, ion formed (with the charge), if they are either a cation or anion and what noble gases would they be? If lithium loses 1 electron to another atom, why is it written Li +1 (with a +1 not a -1)? 2. Why would an atom become an ion? Isn’t it best to be neutral? 3. What do you think happens to the atomic radius (size) of a cation? Why?”

Ion Formation: AI and Ga

The number of valence electrons for AI is 3, while Ga have 5 valence electrons. AI needs to gain 3 electrons to become a stable ion, while Ga needs to gain 1 electron. AI would form AI3- ion and would be an anion. Ga would form Ga+ ion and would be a cation. AI would be similar to the noble gas Ne, while Ga would be similar to the noble gas Ar. Atoms become ions when they gain or lose electrons. When an atom like lithium loses an electron, it becomes positively charged. This is written as Li+1 because the atom has gained one positive charge by losing one electron. The atomic radius of a cation is usually smaller than the original atom because the cation has lost one or more electrons. This makes the nucleus more positively charged, which attracts the electrons closer together. As a result, the cation is smaller in size than the original atom (Alzheimer, 2018). According to a study by Chen et al. (2020), the ionic radius of a cation is smaller than its atomic radius. In conclusion, ion formation involves an atom gaining or losing electrons to become either a… Cont…